An analyst credits more efficient cars because of new mileage requirements and an ongoing shift from coal-power to natural gas to produce electricity.

Could it have happened if the marketplace had just been left alone? It’s a question worth asking because of what people in China are facing today. This:

It’s the city of Harbin, which was closed down this week because of the pollution, a lot of which is because the coal plants that provide electricity and heat for the winter have kicked into high gear.

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker lived in China for eight years. He told PBS NewsHour last evening, “After we had been there for a while, people began to realize that the best Christmas present we could get were air purifiers. And that’s what we used to get. We would go in to friends’ houses and you comment on their air purifier. You would say, ‘that’s a nice model you have got there.'”

There’ve been several news stories recently about the rapidly changing world around us because of climate change. The Star Tribune reported over the weekend that in fewer than 100 years, Minnesota will be, basically, Kansas.

The amazing Alex Chadwick has a new documentary out in the continuing BURN series. And, he reports this week, we’re going to lose Miami. Soon. (Update: See link to Chadwick’s video from last weekend in the comments section)

The scary part of all of this comes today from NPR (of course!). Because the world couldn’t figure out what to do about it — or was unwilling to do anything substantial — we may be entering an era where people and groups are “hacking” the planet to save it.

The last Minnesota survivor of the worst loss of life in Navy history has died. Star Tribune’s Paul Walsh writes today on the passing of Erwin Hensch, a longtime Burnsville resident who died last week in Crosby.

He was aboard the USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed in World War II in the south Pacific. Nine hundred of the 1,200 men aboard survived the attack, but sharks attacked them over five days in the water.

Only 37 survivors are still alive, Walsh reports.

“You grow up 100 years in one year,” Hensch told the Brainerd Dispatch in a 2010 interview. “Those of us who were capable took care of those who were incapable. I didn’t give up. I’m a strong believer in predestination. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen. I didn’t feel I could change it.”

Dusan Travica and five friends left Serbia in search of excitement in Minot, N.D. Two weeks ago, however, their car crashed, killing one of them, and paralyzing Travica, who was airlifted to a hospital in Minneapolis.

Now, he’s stranded there, KARE 11 reports. And his health insurance expired three days before the accident.

Of course, the real question with such a project is this: Why do we need unified flags in the first place? How often do we compare our state flags, anyway? Do their differences really drive us apart? And the big one: is a more cohesive collection of flags really worth sacrificing the history that comes with the ones we’re familiar with today? Almost certainly not. Many would probably argue that our idiosyncratic flags are actually the perfect reflection of a largely idiosyncratic collection of states. We didn’t start this thing all at once: States joined in, territories were annexed, borders were drawn–and all along the way, flags were made.

Bonus III: “Now we are five.” David Sedaris and his family gather at a beach house for the first time since his sister took her own life five months ago. (New Yorker)

Second hour: Tom Weber talks eoyj Duluth Mayor Don Ness about about a meeting tonight that will kick off a community discussion about rebuilding Duluth’s Superior Street, an iconic and important thoroughfare for the city.

The Takeaway (1-2 p.m.) – North Korea-U.S. relations, September unemployment numbers, whatever happened to IBM’s Watson, and what would old pictures sound like?

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – MPR’s Curtis Gilbert profiles Bob Fine, who is the only candidate for Minneapolis mayor who’s been elected citywide. But the Park Board Commissioner’s campaign for mayor is having difficulty gaining traction, Gilbert reports.

Lucy Wainwright Roche’s parents are both musicians. So are her half-brother and sister. Being surrounded by a musical family convinced her to find a different line of work. But the shy elementary school teacher eventually joined the family business and found her own musical success. NPR will profile her.

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started the two most popular blogs in the history of MPR and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories but reflections , observations, and debate.

Related Blog Posts

#5: Yowsa. I should have finished my breakfast before watching. It reminds me that I live a sanitized life. I know that happens, but it’s always shocking when you actually SEE it.

bonus 1: I would severely hurt myself if I tried running with knitting needles. As a side note, I am always a bit surprised that I have to give up my nail clippers or wine bottle opener (that was a sad day) while going through airport security, but knitting needles (even metal ones!) are somehow ok.

bonus 3: Always love to read what David Sedaris has to say. Thanks for linking that essay.

Jack

Bonus #1 – glad to see the video. Figured it had to be a size 15 or so needle in order to get that long of a scarf done – even in 5+ hours. Oh – and TSA has not taken my nail clippers in my recent 6 trips – was taking them instead of scissors for cutting yarn. I did pick up some “airplane – friendly” scissors at a yarn shop in Arizona and quite frankly, they are more dangerous than any nail clippers. Never have had an issue with the needles – but then again I must look pretty harmless, a wacky lady with a bunch of yarn balls, a crochet hook and two pairs of circular needles. I have heard that men with knitting needles have been asked to prove that they actually know how to knit.
Bonus #3 – sure, make me cry at work again. That and the oncology nurse story. I have got to start reading these at home.
A belated welcome back Bob – you were very much missed!

kevinfromminneapolis

1. Who in the US is advocating a China-style approach to air pollution? I don’t know anyone who is.

2. The Earth changes. We are here for an infitely small part of it. I’ll worry when plate tectonics stops. Until then I’ll pass on the alarmism as a covert way to make government bigger.

MrE85

1) North Dakota? After all, they are suing MN for not buying their coal-fueled electricity.

Chris

A lot of tea party/republicans want to abolish the EPA. The earth changes at a slow pace under normal circumstances. Perhaps you read the Strib on Sunday. The environment in Minnesota is changing at an unprecedented rate right before our eyes. The loss of moose and birch trees in NE MN are just two examples.

Ryan V.

Bonus 2: Minnesota’s flag is actually surprisingly uniform–there are 22 or so states with the state seal on a blue field.

That doesn’t mean it’s good. I like the state seal but the flag itself is pretty bad. I agree that flags shouldn’t be changed by trendiness though, which is what that design project basically is. And that having them be distinct and non-unified more accurately represents these United States.

MrE85

1) Spot on, Mr. Collins. During the years the Clean Air Act has been in place, energy consumption and vehicle use in the USA increased by 50 percent. Yet in spite of those new pressures, our air DID get significantly cleaner and healthier. Also, our gross national product tripled.
We have seen deadly pollution like China’s in Pennsylvania and in London in the past. Let’s hope we never see pollution like that again. Here’s that photo from Denora, PA I posted on Twitter. It was taken in the middle of the day.

Chuck

Middle of the day? Truly? Yikes. What year?

MrE85

It happened in October 1948. The weather changed, and the coal smoke from the factory town was trapped near the ground for 5 days. It killed 20 and made 7,000 residents ill.
A similar thing happened in London a few years later, with much worse outcomes. It killed thousands of people.

Jack

This event was actually an episode on the Weather Channel’s “How Weather Changed History”. Very interesting.

Chuck

Bonus II, MN flag: I like the redesigned state flag for simplicity, although the nod to only Minneapolis and Saint Paul–I’m not crazy about it. I also don’t think all the state flags need to be more unified. Although our current state flag has long historical roots, it is impossible to read from more than a few feet away, it looks like about half the other flags in the Union, it has a certain racist and manifest destiny-esque underpinning that is no longer appropriate, and it has actual words in it, meaning that from the wrong side, the words come out as illegible gibberish.

#4) whenever I see stories like this I think, doesn’t this guy have a social worker? He’s going to get all his bills paid, he just needs to apply for Emergency Medical Assistance. I’m sure someone at the hospital already helped him with that. It will take a while to process the application, but unless he has a lot of money in the bank, he will qualify.

Bonnie

When I saw the title of today’s 5 X 8, I thought you were going to lead with the Vikings game and Josh Freeman

kennedy

Well played.

Chris Julin

Speaking of Alex Chadwick and South Florida and rising sea level, he was just there over the weekend for the king tide (highest tide of the year). Fun and disturbing 24 seconds of video from last Friday. http://bit.ly/1eGrwsD

Guest

#1) This is can be a double edge sword. On the one hand you would want the commenters reading the article and viewing the other comments to at least be exposed to their misinformation. If one’s comment are censored, the commenter has the tendency to then off-hand the article as more liberal/conservative biased and will retreat to their echo chamber and not learn something new even if they do not agree. The goal of comments, I think, is to expand the conversation about or to learn off of individual experiences, whether agreed or not, other than the articles/sources writers and editors.
On the other hand, by keeping these comments, it can reinforce the readers to rethink their beliefs off of information that is not factual. The reader can say that if this reliable article/source allows these comments, then it must be true.